911 Mastermind To Be Tried In Federal Court

"Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, and four other men accused in the plot will be prosecuted in federal court in New York City, a federal law enforcement official said early on Friday."

And of course the talking heads will be weighing in on how this course of action will impact on other Gitmo detainees. Four others are reportedly also headed to NY to face trial, but some of those prosecutions may still occur before military commissions. The biggest concern for prosecutors has reportedly been the fact that KSM has been water-boarded some 170 times. Evidence (confessions) that is the result of torture is generally not admitted in criminal trials, and any defense lawyer tasked with defending the man accused of killing 3000 people will have to make the government meet its burdens under the Constitution. Still, a show trial in NY seems right to me. The towers came down in NY. New Yorkers lived with the terror. Ground Zero remains a work in progress. The federal courts there are used to handling big cases and providing great security. And this is a country dedicated to the proposition that we try these cases in public, before the people of this country. And did I mention the 3000 or so who died that day in NY? Their children, spouses and families deserve the chance to see the system at work. That won’t make the case easy for the United States – quite the contrary. That collision of personal rights and public anger will lead to hours of interesting "education" for Americans and others as they watch the court system in action.

About

I am Boise, Idaho criminal defense and DUI attorney Chuck Peterson, and for over thirty years I have been a practicing trial lawyer. I focus on providing the best defense possible to my clients facing criminal charges.

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